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Gary smiles and he should be. He looks at Amanda, who has a small lift to her lip. There has been no mistaking her attitude toward him, but she seems to be warming her icy stance on them being a couple.
Amanda is much like me. She’s just a bitch about it. I have my reasons for keeping Joey at arm’s length. It’s better for both of us if I do it this way.
“Josh and Cole have been a great support system and I do believe my wife is enjoying the fruits of my labor.” Gary runs his hand down his chest and over his stomach, a slimmer one at that, but still a bit portly. Amanda blushes and the audience does their usual prompted oohs and ahs.
Cole starts clapping and I join in. Any confidence that we can give him is a boost. I meet a lot of people in my line of work and know that even the slightest amount of confidence can make someone feel as if they matter.
“Okay, newlyweds, you’ve been in the house a few weeks now, what do you miss the most about the outside world?”
“I actually miss my job,” Millie answers first.
I don’t. I’m happy for the vacation, but am afraid of what my bank account will look like when I’m out of here. I’m going to need to book back-to-back jobs just to catch up. I already have one set up in Alabama starting a week after we finish our press tour. That is going to be a good excuse as to why Joey and I can’t work out once we’re done with the game. We’d never see each other, and she needs a man who is going to worship her and be everything to her that I can’t. I want to kick my own ass for thinking of such a lame ass excuse, but it’s the best I got right now.
“Privacy,” Joey says.
“Starbucks,” Amanda adds.
“What about the guys?” Patrick asks.
“I miss my gym,” I answer.
“My computer,” Gary says.
I want to add his porn channels, but don’t.
We all turn to look at Cole, who is staring at Millie. It confuses me as to why he’s looking at her when the question is about what we all miss from the outside world. Millie whispers something and he smiles. A gesture that pains my heart a little, reminding me that I could have something similar with Joey if I weren’t so damn stubborn.
“I miss the ability to take my wife on a date.”
We can hear the audience members as they all audibly sigh and with one sentence he’s put him and Millie in the lead. He’s smooth; I’ll give him that. And now I need to up my game. I can’t have him stealing votes from my fans. The producers make sure we can hear the audience and their elation.
“Well, Cole, now that you’ve said that I’ll tell you what your next competition is. Newlyweds, tonight is game night. Outside you’ll find three booths, and a trivia board. Up for grabs to the couple who gets the most questions right is: date night! Your competition begins in five minutes.”
I quickly take Joey’s hand in mine and all but drag her to the backyard. She and I need this date night so we can have some privacy to discuss what happened in our room last night. Short of getting into the shower with her—which I don’t think is a very good idea right now—this will be our only option. Our booth is yellow. I hate yellow. My funk needs to change or we’re going to lose this battle.
As soon as we’re all in our respective booths, the questions start. The idea of the game is to be the first to answer, but we won’t know if we’ve got the question right until the end. We have to be fast and efficient. I step in behind Joey and cage her in with my arms. I half expect her to step away from me, but she doesn’t. Yet another reason why she’s perfect. Despite her being on the couch this morning, she’s showing the viewers that we’re solid. But the whole couch thing confuses me and I need to ask her why she was there. Hopefully I didn’t do a dickhead move and kick her out of the bed or something.
“Do want me to read the questions?”
“Yeah, babe, that works.”
Joey turns her head slightly, but doesn’t say anything about my slip and it makes me wonder what else I called her in the heat of the moment. The first question pops up:
What is the Invasion of Normandy also known as?
“D-Day,” I whisper into her ear, not even looking at the options available to us.
What’s the northernmost city in the contiguous United States?
“It has to be in Maine,” I say when the options pop up.
“Are you sure?” she asks, hesitating.
“Positive.”
Joey presses the button and we wait for the next question. The fact that the question is still on the board means that someone hasn’t answered. I want to win, but I don’t. I want to give her a date she’ll never forget, but leaving the sanctuary of the house scares the shit out of me.
In which three cities can you find ‘Sea World’?
